Jonathan Lethem Quotes

I've interviewed everyone from Joe Strummer to Iggy Pop.

The Faith No More stuff isn't about me. It was a band. Maybe that's where a lot of journalists got the wrong idea. You don't just pluck a song off a tree and put vocals on it.

The only thing I use the Rolling Stone for is toilet paper when I run out.

Whereas Rolling Stone, I just never had anything to do with them. I'd stop by the office maybe twice a year.

I don’t feel like a gay icon. I don’t feel like an icon at all. Every single interview was always, ‘What’s it like to play a gay character?’ It would be nice if I was never asked that again. Why isn’t anyone asking the other girls what it’s like to kiss a boy?

I think a lot of people have seen me on The Simple Life and think I'm a "spoilt airhead," but I was playing a character. The producers said they wanted Nicole and I just to be crazy and funny and say outlandish things.

The reason I choose not to speak about my husband is because the press is prone to erase the individual identities of women who work in the industry. I don't want that to happen to me.

I learned how quickly I could go from having never met someone to having the world think I'm dating them.

I got irritated with people asking us the same questions. Like, 'Are you a real band?' Journalists wanted to slay us, tried to cut us down, and I just started caring less and less about doing interviews. With Facebook and Instagram, you kind of don't need to anyway. But now and again, we'll do something when there's new information to share.

If Radiohead made a video where Thom Yorke was featured more than the other members, nobody would say anything.

People often confuse visibility with a lot of other things. Sometimes I become a proxy for things that just aren't true about me. People will say, 'DeRay got millions of dollars in grants.' That's just not true... I'm broke.

People only see you in blogs, and they think they know everything about your life.

I know what people think I am. People think I'm dumb. People think I party all the time. People think I'm ignorant.

Doctors have a really big fear of looking unprofessional. I've always said that if you're a professional person, you'll never come off looking unprofessional, whether it's social media or something else.

The story of my life publicly has been told through 'Alternative Press.' Former employees, people who have worked there - my friend Ryan Downey, who wrote for 'AP' for a long time - I've been able to have really great articles written about me and talk openly about things in my life.

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who don't like Robbie Williams but he is presented to the public in such a way that they have no choice.

I'm one of those controversial celebs or whatever you want to call it, but I am actually a musician - people forget this.

There's a lot of people who think that I am happy all the time.

We released 'Mad World' as a single because we felt the music press would like it.

Our interest in 'Rolling Stone' is driven by its people, its cultural significance, and the globally recognized brand that has no peer in its areas of influence.

When I'm out and people ask me what I do for a living, the worst thing you can say is, 'I'm a singer.' It opens up a can of worms.

As a comedian I don't think they look at me as a sexual person but I can see where with actors it would be a little difficult for them because its part of their mystique, it gives them an easier time to change characters and people aren't going oh we have a gay actor, their gay so I don't know if I'm gunna buy this guy with this girl, its weird, I don't think it's fair; it's only done with us, it seems, like they just accept everyone as straight and go along with it and then its oh their gay and make a big deal out of it.

People are really much more respectful than they're made out to be and much more discerning about the fact that I'm not the character I play.

To go too much another way, for the sake of my ego in wanting to create something... in the situation of Superman is just wrong. Especially since we're continuing, in a sense, that story. The characters have to feel somewhat similar. What are you going to do with Superman? The world, and all the people that have created it, created him and have all kind of come together to make this image. Everybody kind of has the same idea of what it should be. So for me to go, "Okay, no, I think he should have a southern accent." Or something crazy, just doesn't make any sense.

When I joined, I was one of the first artists to sign on to the Motown West label when they opened their first studio in California. At the studio, you'd run into Stevie Wonder, you'd run into Marvin Gaye…it was very special.